Bulletin of Christian Persecution:

December 26, 2010Iran
In the early morning hours after Christmas day, the Iranian government arrested 25 Christians in Tehran and other locations. They also planned to detain sixteen others, but were unable to locate them. There are also unconfirmed reports that the authorities have arrested over 50 other Christians. According to BBC Persian, the Governor of Tehran has vowed to arrest more evangelical Christians. More HERE.

December 28, 2010Pakistan
A strike will be held to protest against the "conspiracies" of present rulers to repeal the blasphemy law.

Nigeria
A pastor and the five other Christians were killed in the Dec. 24 attacks on Victory Baptist Church in Alemderi and a Church of Christ in Nigeria (COCIN) congregation in Sinimari by the outlawed Islamic Boko Haram sect opposed to Western education. More HERE. Update HERE.

December 29, 2010Malaysia
Catholic church officials were told to remove crucifixes and to avoid hymns being sung when Prime Minister Najib Razak attended the Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur's Christmas tea party last Saturday

December 30, 2010Iraq (Hat tip to JihadWatch)
At least two Christians were killed and 12 people wounded in a series of attacks on Christian homes in Baghdad. More HERE (Hat tip to AtlasShrugs) .

January 1, 2011
Egypt (Hat tip to JihadWatch)
A bomb killed at least 21 people outside a church in the Egyptian city of Alexandria early on New Year's Day and the Interior Ministry said a foreign-backed suicide bomber may have been responsible. Dozens of people were wounded by the blast, which scattered body parts, destroyed cars and smashed windows. More HERE. And HERE.

The police investigation into a New Year's church bombing that killed 21 people is focusing on a local group of Islamic hard-liners inspired by al-Qaida, Egyptian security officials said Sunday. Update HERE. And HERE.

Egyptian security guards withdrew an hour before the car explosion that went off in front of Saints Coptic Orthodox Church in Alexandria that killed 21 and injured 96 parishioners. According to church officials and eyewitnesses, there are many more victims that are still unidentified and whose body parts were strewn all over the street outside the church. The body parts were covered with newspapers until they were brought inside the church after some Muslims started stepping on them and chanting Jihadi chants. Video Here (Hat tip toGatesofVienna)

January 3, 2011Egypt
A religious edict signed by a Mauritanian cleric linked to Al-Qaeda' s late leader in Iraq and posted to jihadist websites appears to legitimise the deadly New Year's Eve attack on a church in northern Egypt. Update. (Hat tip to JihadWatch) Pope Shenouda ended his spiritual mediation at St. Bishoy Monastery in Wadi Notroun to go back to the Cathedral's headquarters in Abbasiya on Sunday, meanwhile mulling whether or not to cancel Coptic Christmas celebrations. Some church leaders requested that the Jan. 7 Coptic Christmas celebrations be cancelled after the bombing of a church in Alexandria that left 21 dead and 97 injured.

Italy/European Union
European Union aid should be tied to respect for human rights in countries where Christian minorities are under attack, an Italian Foreign minister said Monday after a New Year's Day church bombing in the Egyptian city of Alexandria that killed 21 Coptic Christians. More HERE.

Russia (Hat tip to JihadWatch)
Unidentified attackers set a church ablaze with a grenade in Russia's mainly Muslim North Caucasus late on Sunday, media reported, in the latest act of violence in a region where Moscow is struggling to contain an Islamist insurgency.

Germany (Hat tip to JihadWatch)
Bishop Anba Damian, head of the Coptic Church in Germany, told a German newspaper that he had asked the government for special protection out of fear his church's followers would be targeted. "Before Christmas, the internet was full of threats against us," he said. "The police have warned us several times of the danger of attacks by radical Muslims. . . ."

Afghanistan
A judge told Shoaib Assadullah that if he did not renounce Christ within one week he would face up to 20 years in prison or even be sentenced to death. Shoaib was arrested on Oct. 21, 2010, when he gave a man a Bible.

January 4, 2011Pakistan (Hat tip to AtlasShrugs)
A Pakistani politician, who had become a leading opponent in recent weeks of a court decision in November to sentence a 45-year-old Christian farm laborer, Asia Bibi to death for blasphemy against the Prophet Muhammad, was assassinated. More HERE. (Hat tip toJihadWatch)
Update HERE. And HERE.

January 5, 2011Egypt
A recent message posted on the al-Shumukh website and others considered close to Al-Qaeda addressed themselves directly to Coptic pope Shenuda III who was warned of "imminent new strikes" against Egyptian Copts. One message on a forum promised that "we will strike you all in a new attack. We have warned you as Allah is my witness." UpdateHERE.

January 6, 2011Egypt l
A bomb was found under stair way of Saint Antonius Church in Il Minya (Upper Egypt).

USA/MidEast (Hat tip to persecution.org)
As the 21st Century enters its second decade, two millennia of Christian presence in the Middle East might be eclipsed by the end of the century.

January 7, 2011France/MidEast
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Friday that Christian minorities in the Middle East are victims of "religious cleansing", following deadly attacks on churches in the region.

USA
Anti-Christian crimes are being downplayed by the media while Islamaphobia gets prominent news coverage even though the FBI hate crime statistics, for 2009, found that 8.4 percent of the 1,575 victims of anti-religious crimes were attacked because of anti-Islamic bias. In contrast, 71.9 percent of the victims were Jews.

Indonesia
An Islamic radical group is threatening to disrupt a Catholic gathering on religious freedom.

January 8, 2011Australia
The Weekend Australian says it understands the four churches were among a list of more than 60 Coptic Orthodox churches worldwide that were targeted by the unnamed Islamic extremist group.

Sudan (Hat tip to JihadWatch)
Christians in North Sudan have fear of persecution if South Sudan votes to secede.

January 10, 2011Indonesia
Government officials in West Java Province blocked one church from worshipping, and Islamic groups pressured authorities to seize the property of another during the Christmas season.

Italy/World-wide
Christians in Iraq, Egypt and Nigeria have been killed in churches, in Pakistan a blasphemy law has become an "excuse to cause injustice and violence" . . . The list of violations and attacks on religious freedom delivered today by Benedict XI to the representatives of 180 countries and international organizations that have diplomatic relations with the Holy See, touches hundreds of millions of people around the world.

About Me

I am an Air Force Veteran of the Cold War and the First Gulf War (Operation Desert Storm). I live on a wooded hilltop with my two rescued dogs, Yogi and Ranger, and two rescued cats, White Sox, and Mittens. We share my land with several deer, a family of red-tailed hawks, a barn owl, numerous squirrels (that my dogs and the cat tree together), a family of pileated woodpeckers and numerous cottontail rabbits, and an occasional opossum or raccoon.